In the conventional motion picture printing machine most frequently used, the exposure light beam passes through the superimposed negative film and copy film travelling at high speed through that beam and beyond them between axially-spaced stripping wheels and sprockets. As a consequence, the negative film and copy film are maintained in constant contact with one another only adjacent their opposite edges because their central portions must remain unobstructed by such stripping wheels and sprockets in order to permit passage of the exposure light beam after its passage through the two films. As a consequence, the major portions of the two films are free to move apart relatively to one another and do so intermittently, thereby resulting in indistinct printing and consequent fuzziness of image on the copy film during the periods in which it and the negative film have moved apart from one another throughout most of their widths.